5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: Tuesday 22 August 2017

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, August 22, 2017.

Actually, there are 12 timely updates designed for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), independent software vendors (ISVs), telco master agents and telco agents to sip on. Take a look

12. Gluware Pivots: Glue Networks, an SD-WAN specialist, has changed its name to Gluware Inc. The company now emphasizes  multi-vendor, multi-domain solutions across automation and orchestration. Related: Watch for Gluware demonstrations at VMworld 2017 next week in Las Vegas.

11. Funding Part One: Druva has raised $80 million in equity growth funding led by Riverwood Capital. The round brings total total funding to $200 million. The data protection company says it now protects more than 4,000 customers worldwide. Related: Druva Data Management as a Service Targets VMWare Partners, Customers.

10. Funding Part Two: Skytap Inc. has raised $45 million in Series E funding led by Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing. The company says sales more than tripled year-over-year (YoY) in Q2 2017 vs. Q2 2016. Skytap has a public cloud that allows customers to migrate and run traditional applications unchanged, without refactoring or rearchitecting, the company claims. The growth sounds impressive but I always get a little concerned when I see companies moving toward a Series E funding...  Key partners include IBM and VMware. 

9. M&A Part One: VectorCloud, an IT service provider focused on business continuity, security and Office 365, has been acquired by three of its senior employees, Insider.co reports.

8. M&A Part Two: nexVortex, a SIP trunking and hosted voice specialist, has acquired Northwest VOX. This is nexVortex's third acquisition in three years, and the company has generated eight years of consecutive quarter over quarter growth. We're poking around for more details.

7. M&A Part Three: Cisco Systems is acquiring Springpath, a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) alternative to Nutanix and HP Enterprise's SimpliVity business. The potential Cisco-Springpath business combination had been rumored for several months. The $320 million deal is expected to close later this year. Related Conference: Cisco Partner Summit 2017 is set for November in Dallas.

6. Cisco SDN Goes Cloud: Cisco is extending its software-defined networking technology to run on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. The move comes as Cisco attempts to accelerate its move from traditional hardware and software toward subscription services.

5. Lenovo Critics Grow Louder: Lenovo shares fell for the third straight day on Tuesday after the company announced a surprise quarterly loss on Friday. China International Capital, a financial analyst firm, thinks shares could fall another 27 percent amid intense mobile, PC and data center competition, according to Bloomberg. By the way, China International Capital's analyst is the top-ranked pro in this particular market segment, Bloomberg asserted. Lenovo maintains that the company has a strong plan that will deliver growth over the next two years...

4. Partner Program: ScienceLogic, which offers hybrid IT monitoring. has launched a Technical Services Partner Program within its ChannelLogic partner initiative. The program, designed for systems integrators and CSPs, provides development and enablement for partners who provide technical services to their clients.

3. OpenStack vs. VMware: Rackspace's private cloud technology now includes VMware Cloud Foundation. Hmmm... What does that mean for Rackspace's longstanding commitment to OpenStack for private clouds? We're checking.

2. Hybrid Cloud Data Protection: ClearSky Data, provider of on-demand primary storage with built-in offsite backup and disaster recovery (DR) as a single service, is promoting support across Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cloudian, Google and Virtustream. 

1. Backup-PSA Integration: Dropsuite, which offers a cloud backup platform for small and medium businesses, has integrated Dropsuite Email Backup and Archiving with ConnectWise Manage, the PSA and business management platform. Related Conference: ConnectWise's IT Nation 2017 conference is set for November in Orlando.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.